Kenyan international Erick Marcelo Ouma who plays for AIK has been ranked as one of the defenders with best take-on index in the world, where he has been ranked amongst the top ten in the Europan non-big five leagues. This is according to a report by the CIES Football Observatory, a study group within the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), an independent study center located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He is ranked 59th globally with a score of 75.8 out of 100. This takes him ahead of some big names on the world stage such as Bayern Munich's Benjamin Pavard (73.0), Real Madrid's Ferland Mendy (73.4), West Ham's Aaron Creswell (73.7), Bayern Munich's Daley Blind (74.5), and Manchester United's Luke Shaw (75.4). Erick Ouma is, however, 10th in the list that does not include players who hail their trade in Europe's big five leagues. 

He played a total of 2,213 minutes in 2022 across 26 matches in the Swedish top-tier league. In these appearances, he scored a total of two goals and set up four others, which amounted to be the biggest goals contribution a defender made during that season. His market value has risen from  €100,000 which roughly translates to about Ksh 13,600,000 in December 2020 to €1,500,000 which is Ksh 204,000,00 in January this year. He has had a total of 15 goal contributions since he joined the Swedish league at the start of 2020 from 73 matches across all competitions. 

The players who have performed the best in take-on over the past year were highlighted in the February edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post. The players were ranked according to an exclusive index based on 100 that took into account the frequency of successful dribbles and crosses, playing time, and the sporting level of the matches they participated in, with a baseline of 1,000 minutes played in the domestic league over the previous 365 days. The current player ranked as the best defensive player on the take-on aspect is Manchester City's Joao Felix who is on loan to Bayern Munich.